easyJet plc : easyJet's inaugural flight celebrates the launch of the first new airport in the south east for decades

03/26/2012 | 06:26am US/Eastern

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easyJet's inaugural flight celebrates the launch of the
first new airport in the south east for decades

- Popular ski route of Geneva to launch from winter 2012-

easyJet, the UK's largest airline, will today celebrate
the launch of its new UK base at London Southend Airport -
the first new airport in the south east for decades.
Southend is the airline's 23rd base in Europe and 11th
in the UK, with a special inaugural flight taking off from
the new airport to Barcelona.

Southend was once London's third biggest as well as the
home of Freddie Laker's first airline venture. Southend
will offer a fast and convenient new way to fly to and from
London. The brand new terminal - which was recently
officially opened by Secretary of State for Transport,
Justine Greening MP - is located within a minute's walk
from the new train station with superb links into Stratford
and central London.

Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet, commented;

"We are delighted to be at Southend to launch our
services here. We have worked closely with the airport over
the past year to help put Southend Airport back on the map
and we are sure that its fast, efficient and customer
friendly terminal along with its great rail links to London
will make it a popular choice with our passengers."

Commercial flights commence on 2 April when there will be
70 easyJet flights per week, making it the ideal gateway
for both business and leisure travel across Europe. On
landing at Southend Airport passengers should be able to
get from the plane to the train within 15 minutes.

easyJet has today announced a new route for the winter
schedule from London Southend, the tenth route from the
airport, to popular city and ski centre, Geneva. easyJet
will operate three services a week on Fridays, Saturdays
and Sundays from mid-December. Seats will go on sale on 19
April.

Carolyn McCall, added:

"We are also pleased to be able to add Geneva to our
wide range of routes which are available from the airport.
Our launch programme includes family destinations, city
breaks and key business routes but we felt it was important
to ensure that a skiing destination was also available for
the winter."

From 2 April onwards easyJet flights will commence more
than 70 flights a week to nine destinations across Europe
from Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona Berlin, Faro, Ibiza,
Jersey, Majorca and Malaga. Geneva will be added from
winter 2012. Amsterdam is proving the most popular route to
and from London Southend proving that for the Dutch
"de enige manier is Essex" (The only way is
Essex).

"easyJet's start of services from London Southend
marks the true beginning of a new era for the airport. With
£100 million invested and 500 new jobs created in the
region, together with 10 exciting new routes from easyJet,
the existing Aer Lingus Regional Waterford route and a new
Dublin service from May, this is a very exciting time to
start flying from London Southend Airport."

London Southend is easyJet's eleventh UK base which
will bring three new A319 aircraft and over 150 employees
to the airport, with more than 800,000 passengers expected
to fly in the airline's first year of take off.

easyJet operates Europe's No. 1 air transport network
with a leading presence on Europe's top 100 routes and
at Europe's 50 largest airports.
easyJet flies on more than 600 routes between 130 airports
in 30 countries. More than 300 million Europeans live
within one hour's drive of an easyJet airport, more
than any other airline.

The airline takes sustainability seriously. easyJet invests
in the latest technology, operates efficiently and fills
most of its seats which means that an easyJet
passenger's carbon footprint is 22% less than a
passenger on a traditional airline, flying the same
aircraft on the same route.

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This press release was issued by easyjet plc and was initially posted at http://corporate.easyjet.com/media/latest-news/news-year-2012/26-03-2012b-en.aspx . It was distributed, unedited and unaltered, by noodls on 2012-03-26 11:44:56 AM. The issuer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information contained therein.